MOM HELPS SON MAKE JAILBREAK

In a brazen, daylight jailbreak, two men and a woman plowed the cab of a tractor-trailer through the front gates and razor-topped fences of a prison in Miami-Dade County, then exchanged gunfire with guards to free a waiting inmate.

The escapee's 58-year-old mother, armed and following behind in a stolen truck, then helped the breakout gang roar out of the complex at the Everglades Correctional Institution and into the streets southwest of Miami.

Late Saturday night, police were still searching for inmate Jay Sigler, 31, a violent habitual offender who had served eight years of a 20-year sentence.

Sigler, whose most recent prison stint came after he was convicted of robbing two women tourists on the Fort Lauderdale Strip, was last seen at a shopping center near the prison where he jumped into a waiting car with one of the men, who had a shotgun.

"They escaped in a black Saturn just prior to officers getting there," said Miami-Dade Detective Rudy Espinosa. "We hope we can catch them soon. Unfortunately, they are mobile."

Sigler's mother, Sandra, who police said masterminded the breakout, was not as elusive.

Police caught her and two other members of the group at the strip center as they too tried to switch cars and run.

Sandra Sigler of North Miami was arrested along with Kelly Mitchell and John Beaston, both 29. All three were being questioned by Metro-Dade police and Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents late Saturday.

Authorities said they have launched an intense manhunt for Sigler, who they think is driving his mother's black, two-door Saturn with the license G60JI.

The escape occurred about 2:30 p.m. when the truck rammed through the front gate, sheared off a metal railing and trampled two security fences before coming to a stop. The driver got out with a shotgun and started firing as Sigler ran to join them, police said.

Two prison guards were injured when they dived for cover, but others were able to fire off shots of their own as the group piled into the stolen truck and made the escape.

Sigler was in "close" custody at Everglades, a status prison officials say is one of their toughest.

He was convicted in 1986 on a Miami-Dade County grand theft and robbery charge and sentenced to 31/2 years. He was out in April 1989 when he was convicted on a drug charge.

A year later, Sigler and some friends were cruising near the Fort Lauderdale Strip when they came upon two women vacationing from Austria whose car had been towed.

Sigler and his accomplices offered the women a ride to the towing company lot. When the women became suspicious and asked to get out of the car, the men locked the doors and tried to rob them.

One of the women's clothes was ripped during a struggle and after the women got out of the car, the men beat them, took their jewelry, cash and a passport. Sigler was later convicted of that robbery and sentenced as a habitual violent offender.

Guards at Everglades Correctional were still stunned by the afternoon breakout.

The prison, spread over almost 100 acres of concrete-hard coral rock at the edge of the Everglades, opened in 1995. It was designed as one of the most secure and advanced in the state with its butterfly-shaped cellblocks on concrete slabs, buried motion sensors, and multiple chain-link fences.

"This is something that happens in the movies," said Preston White, a guard at the prison. "It doesn't happen in real life."